AlchemyTimeline

The Ancients

Alchemy has been practised since ancient times, according to legend by the Lemurians at first, who later carried it into India. Some dare trace it aeons back, even to what in Hindu time units would be the beginning of the present Kalpa. Fragments of books under authorship of the great Rãmacandra having survived to this very day. Through the rise and fall of many races, alchemy found its way through history in lighter and darker periods, having one of its golden ages 125.000 years ago in Lemuria, practised by the lesser Gods and the most advanced men of that race. Before Lemuria sank beneath the waters of the Pacific, it was carried into India, where it has been practised until today. The Altlanteans however also practised the Art. They carried it into Northern Africa with the submersion of Atlantis.

The Egyptians were the heir of this knowledge. With the fall of Indian culture in one of the more recent equinoctial cycles of evolution, the best of the race travelled westward and met the custodians of the Atlantean knowledge, and the knowledge of the two races was combined. Then finally, in the present cycle, when intellectual darkness settled towards the beginning of our current era, and through the subsequent rule and censorship of the church, Arabia became the custodian of the Lamp of hidden Wisdom.

Beyond Egypt

In addition to the writings in stone that were left by the Egyptians,
Arabian manuscripts probably provide the most ‘original’ of sources,
and the Inner Garden Foundation gratefully draws upon that heritage,
most notably with regard to the Inner Work. Today the true nature of
the Alchemical tradition is known by few. A steady stream of books is
becoming available on the subject today, but one will often find they
excel in superficiality or romantic superstitions. The discredit done
to Alchemy in the last centuries has firmly marked the Art in a
deleterious way. However, as mentioned, a turn towards the better is
observed in the current Age of Aquarius, and its pioneers are ready to
move onward, forward.

The Inner Garden Foundation is fortunate to be able to draw on the
valuable resource of an ancient line of Alchemical transmission.
Through the kind patronage of the Elder Brothers, the foundation has
access to the Arabic teachings as they were before the dark ages of
growing ignorance. We therefore honour the Masters of old, the Poor
Knights of Christ and our Muslim Brothers of the House of Wisdom Bayt
Al Hikmah. Below is included a timeline of some crucial events in the
known history of alchemy.

Time

Description

250,000 BCE

Possible origin of mankind (homo sapiens) according to
recent genetic research

30,000 BCE

Golden age of previous equinoctial cycle, first
Illuminatus, Gruad, rules in Atlantis

15,000 BCE

Golden age and begin of descent into darkness of current
equinoctial cycle. The height of the Lemurian civilization

Sphinx was build, the Atlanteans are thought to have
carried their knowledge to the continent of Africa

5,000 BCE - 2,000 BCE

Sumer - Sumer becomes the cradle of civilization in the
West

3,000 BCE

Unification of upper and Lower Egypt by King Menes, Capital
is in Memphis

2,900 BCE - 2,500 BCE

Old Kingdom of Egypt: Dynasties 3-6

2,900 BCE

Nubian gold mines in operation.

2,160 BCE - 1,800 BCE

Middle Kingdom: Dynasties 11-12

2,000 BCE - 1,600 BCE

Alchemy is practiced in Chaldea

1,800 BCE - 500 CE

Eleusinian Mysteries arose in Eleusis

1,500 BCE - 1,100 BCE

New Kingdom, or Empire: Dynasties 18-20

1,300 BCE

Zarathushtra founds Zoroastrianism

600 BCE - 492 BCE

The Pythagorean School was founded in Crotona, Italy

525 BCE - 430 BCE

Empedocles: Doctrine of the four elements

300 BCE

Theophrastus: Philosopher and naturalist

300 BCE

Lao Tzu, founder of philosophical Taoism

249 BCE - 210 BCE

Shih Huang Ti, emperor, legendary founder of alchemy in
China

240 BCE

The Papyrus of Ani (Version of Egyptian book of the Dead)

200 BCE

Bolus of Mende: ‘Virtues’ of animals, plants and stones

200 BCE - 100 CE

The Essenes

200 BCE - 500 CE

Mithraic Mysteries - An initiatic mystery school in which
students were gradually introduced to astronomical truths
through symbol, and how the knowledge of these could lead the
seeker to union with the power behind all existence. This
combination of scientific study, symbolic initiation and
cosmic union is a feature of Rosicrucian work.

Wei Po-yang, called the ‘Father of Alchemy’, author of
earliest treatise devoted wholly to alchemy

4 BCE - 33 CE

Jesus founds Christianity

1 BCE - present

Hermetic Tradition

23-79 CE

Pliny the Elder: Natural History

46 CE

St.Mark meets Ormus the Egyptian sage. Together they found
both the Coptic Church and the beginnings of the Brotherhood
of the Rose Cross (according to Masonic legend)

100 CE

Democritus the alchemist: Recipes for colouring or alloying
base metals

100 CE

Mary the Jewess: Leading experimental alchemist

100 CE - 200 CE

Cleopatra: Experimental alchemist

100 CE - 300 CE

Composition of Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of several
Greek texts from the second and third centuries, survivors
from a more extensive literature, known as Hermetica.

276 CE

Mani, Persian high priest of Zoroaster crucified
(Manichaesim)

281 CE - 361 CE

Ko Hung, the foremost Chinese alchemist

296 CE

Diocletian: Supposed ban on alchemy

300 CE

Zosimos of Panopolis (Hellenistic alchemist) writer of one
of the oldest surviving alchemical tractates

500 CE

Arab conquest of Egypt. Arabs re-discover Alchemy and
Hermetics

600 CE

The Sefer Yetzirah, an important Qabalistic text, is
edited. It is the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism.

650 CE

Khalid Ibn Yazeed, Arabic Alchemist

700 CE

8th century. Copy of an Alexandrian Ms gives first recorded
mention of the word Vitriol. The same Ms gives first mention
of cinnabar (mercuric sulfide)

776 CE

Geber, the Arabian alchemist whose real name has been
variously stated as Jabir Ben Haiyan or Abou Moussah Djafar al
Sofi, is active. According to the tenth-century
Kitab-al-Fihrist, Geber was born at Tarsus and lived at
Damascus and Kufa.

900 CE

Al-Tamimi Muhammad Ibn Amyal, Arabic Alchemist

920 CE

Rhazes, an Arab physician

940 CE

Ibn Wahshiyh, Abu Baker, Arabic Alchemist and botanist

950 CE

Al Majrett’ti Abu-alQasim, Arabc alchemist and astrologer

954 CE

Alfarabi, an Arab Alchemist

1000 CE

Codex Marcianus 299: Earliest surviving Greek alchemical MS

1030 CE

Avicenna, an Arab physician

1054 CE

Rome splits from orthodox church, forms Catholic church

1099 CE

Godfri de Bouillion takes Jerusalem

1100 CE

Foundation of the Ordre de Sion by Godfri de Bouillion. Its
headquarters were established on Mount Sion outside Jerusalem
city

1100 CE

Al-Tuhra-ee, Al-Husain Ibn Ali, Arabic Alchemist

1110 CE

Kalid, a king in Egypt

1128 CE

Knights Templar get Papal Charter and become Monastic
Order.

1144 CE

Earliest dated Western alchemical treatise - Robert of
Chester De compositione alchemiae

1150 CE

Turba philosophorum translated from Arabic

1160 CE

Artephius (alchemist) asserts in his ‘Secret Book’ that he
has lived for 1000 years before this date due to his use of
the Elixir of Life.

1188 CE

Knights Templar split from Ordre de Sion at the cutting of
the Elm. Ordre de Sion changes its name to L’Ordre de la Rose
Croix Veritas and adopts the second title of "Ormus".

1199 CE

Approximate date Grail romances appeared in Western Europe

1200 CE

The Picatrix (The Goal of the Sage [in sorcery]) is a
grimoire of uncertain origins, isprobably written circa 1200
AD. Offering talismanic and astrological guidance, the text
clearly comes from a non-European ethos. It has been
attributed to al-Majriti (an Andalusian mathematician), but
this attribution is doubtful, and the author is sometimes
listed as Pseudo-Majriti. Originally written in Arabic, a
Latin translation appeared in 1256 from the court of Alphonso
X of Castile.

1214 CE

Roger Bacon, alchemist, occultist and Franciscan friar, is
born. Bacon, also known as Doctor Mirabilis (Latin: ‘wonderful
teacher’), eventually places considerable emphasis on
empiricism and becomes one of the earliest European advocates
of the modern scientific method.

1231 CE

First mention of alchemy in French literature - Roman de la
Rose. William de Loris writes Le Roman de Rose, assisted by
Jean de Meung, who also wrote The Remonstrance of Nature to
the Wandering Alchemist and The Reply of the Alchemist to
Nature

1232 CE

Abraham Abulafia, Sicilian Qabalist, founder of ecstatic
Kabbala, is born in Saragosa.

1232 CE

Raymond Lull, an alchemist believed to possess titanic
physical and mental energy, who threw himself heart and soul
into everything he did, is born. Writings attributed to Lull
include a number of works on alchemy, most notably Alchimia
Magic Naturalis, De Aquis Super Accurtationes, De Secretis
Medicina Magna and De Conservatione Vitoe.

1234 CE

Albertus Magnus - alchemist , scholar, philosopher, and
scientist is born. No fewer than 21 alchemical folio volumes
are attributed to him

1235 CE

Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, discusses
transmutation of metals in De artibus liberalibus and De
generatione stellarum.

1256 CE

King Alfonso the Wise of Castile orders translation of
alchemical texts from Arabic. He is supposed to have written
Tesoro a treatise on the Philosophers’ stone

1270 CE

Roger Bacon, the inventor of gunpowder

1270 CE

Thomas Aquinas is sympathetic to the idea of alchemical
transmutation in his Summa theologia. In his Thesaurus
Alchimae, Aquinus speaks openly of the successes of Albertus
and himself in the art of transmutation.

1272 CE

Provincal Chapter at Narbonne forbids the Franciscans to
practice alchemy.

1275 Ce

Ramon Lull Ars Magna.

1280 CE

Sefer Ha-Zohar, an essential Qabalistic text, makes its
first written appearance, written by Moses de León but
attributed to Simon ben Yohai.

The Knights Templar become extinct, except for a few, when
the order is dissolved by the Council of Vienne. All the
property owned by the Templars is transferred to the Knights
of St. John (The Hospitallers)

1314 CE

Raymond Lully, a Spanish prelate

1314 CE

Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is
burned at the stake

1317 CE

The first Rosicrucian order is formed: the French Ordre
Souverain des. Frères Aînés de la Rose Croix

1317 CE

Pope John XXII’s Papal Bull, Spondet quas non exhibent,
is issued against those who practice alchemy. The Cistercians
ban alchemy.

1323 CE

Dominicans in France prohibit the teaching of alchemy at
the University of Paris, and demand the burning of alchemical
writings

1329 CE

King Edward III requests Thomas Cary to find two alchemists
who have escaped, and to find the secret of their art

1330 CE

Nicolas Flamel is born. Flamel becomes a successful writer,
manuscript-seller, and alchemist. Flamel is attributed as the
author of the Livre des Figures Hiéroglypiques, an
alchemical book published in Paris in 1612 then in London in
1624 as ‘Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures.’ Flamel is
reputed to have succeeded in the two goals of Hermetic alchemy
- to have made the Philosopher’s Stone which turns lead into
gold, and to have achieved immortality in a single
incarnation, together his wife Perenelle. Pope John XXII gives
funds to his physician to set up a laboratory for a ‘certain
secret work.’

1338 CE

Hospitallers acquire Templar Holdings in Scotland

1340 CE

Jean de Meung, author of the Romance of the Rose

1356 CE

Pope Innocent VI imprisons the Catalan alchemist John of
Rupescissa, who insists that the only real purpose of alchemy
is to benefit mankind. Rupescissa’s works abound with
medicinal preparations derived from metals and minerals and he
emphasizes distillation processes which seemingly separate
pure quintessences from the gross matter of natural
substances.

1357 CE

Hortulanus’ commentary on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes

1376 CE

The Dominican Directorium inquisitorum, the textbook for
inquisitors, places alchemists among magicians and wizards.

Christian Rosenkreuz begins his pilgrimage at the age of
sixteen. This leads him to Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, where he
comes into contact with sages of the East, who reveal to him
the "universal harmonic science"

1396 CE

Order of the Dragon is confirmed to exist at this time,
though the date of foundation is unclear

1398 CE

Supposed date that Christian Rosencruez founds Rosicrucian
Order

1403 CE

King Henry IV of England issues a prohibition of alchemy
and to stop counterfeit money

1415 CE

Nicholas Flamel, a benefactor of the poor of Paris

1450 CE

Basil Valentine, prior of a Benedictine monastry

1453 CE

Joost Balbian, Dutch alchemist born in Aalst, died in 1616
in Gouda

1456 CE

12 men petition Henry VI of England for a license to
practise alchemy

1470 CE

Der Antichrist und die funfzehn Zeichnen (the book of the
antichrist) associates alchemists with demons and Satan

1471 CE

George Ripley Compound of alchemy. Ficino’s translation of
the Corpus Hermeticum

1476 CE

George Ripley writes Medulla alchemiae.

1484 CE

Christian Rosenkreutz, Frater C.R.C., the founder of the
Rosicrucian tradition, passes according to the Confessio
Fraternitatis. Avicenna writes De anima.

1484 CE

Avicenna’s De anima. Hieronymous Bosch Garden of earthly
delights

1485 CE

Summa perfectionis, attributed to Geber, is published. In
this important alchemical text, the sulphur-mercury theory
forms the theoretical basis for an understanding of the
metals, and the alchemist is informed that he must arrange
these substances in perfect proportions for the consummation
of the Great Work. Geber describes in considerable detail the
laboratory processes and equipment of the alchemist

1493 CE

Paracelsus, alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general
occultist, is born. Born Phillip von Hohenheim, he later takes
up the name Philippus Theophrastus Aureolus Bombastus von
Hohenheim, and still later takes the title, Paracelsus,
meaning ‘equal to or greater than Celsus.’ Celsus was a Roman
encyclopedist from the first century known for his tract on
medicine.

1505 CE

Levinus born in Zierikzee, the Netherlands

1516 CE

Trithemius of Spanheim; and abbot

1519 CE

Braunschweig’s Das Buch zu distillieren

1527 CE

John Dee, noted Welsh mathematician, astronomer,
astrologer, geographer, occultist, and consultant to Queen
Elizabeth I, is born in London.

1530 CE

Georgius Agricola Bermannus, book on mining and extraction
of ores

1532 CE

The earliest version of the Splendor Solis, one of the most
beautiful of illuminated alchemical manuscripts. The work
consists of a sequence of 22 elaborate images, set in
ornamental borders and niches. The symbolic process shows the
classical alchemical death and rebirth of the king, and
incorporates a series of seven flasks, each associated with
one of the planets. Within the flasks a process is shown
involving the transformation of bird and animal symbols into
the Queen and King, the white and the red tincture.

1536 CE

Cornelius Agrippa, occult philosopher

1415 CE

Paracelsus, physician and professor

1541 CE

In hoc volumine alchemia first alchemical compendium

1550 CE

The Rosarium philosophorum, attributed to Attributed to
Arnoldo di Villanova (1235-1315), is first published, although
it had circulated in manuscript form for centuries.

1552 CE

Emperor Rudolph II is born. Astronomy and alchemy become
mainstream science in Renaissance Prague and Rudolf was a firm
devotee of both. His lifelong quest is to find the
Philosophers Stone and Rudolf spares no expense in bringing
Europe’s best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and
John Dee. Rudolf even performs his own experiments in a
private alchemical laboratory.

1555 CE

Agricola

1560 CE

Denis Zachaire

1560 CE

Heinrich Khunrath is born in Leipzig. It is evident that
the first Rosicrucian manifesto, the Fama Fraternitatis, is
influenced by the work of this respected Hermetic philosopher
and author of "Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae" (1609), a
work on the mystical aspects of alchemy, which contains the
oft-seen engraving entitled ‘The First Stage of the Great
Work’, better-known as the ‘Alchemist’s Laboratory.’

1566 CE

Michael Maier, Rosicrucian alchemist, and philosopher,
physician to Emperor Rudolph II, is born. Meier becomes one of
the most prominent defenders of the Rosicrucians, clearly
transmitting details about the "Brothers of the Rose Cross" in
his writings.

1571 CE

Johannes Pontanus, born in Hardewijk, the Netherlands,
studied the path of Arthepius together with Tycho Brahe. Died
in 1640

1589 CE

Edward Kelley embarkes on his public alchemical
transmutations in Prague

1599 CE

First appearance of a work of Basil Valentine, the German
adept and Benedictine monk, in alchemical philosophy is
commonly supposed to have been born at Mayence toward the
close of the fourteenth century. His works will eventually
include the Triumphant Chariot of Antimony, Apocalypsis
Chymica, De Microcosmo degue Magno Mundi Mysterio et
Medecina Hominis and Practica un cum duodecim Clavibus et
Appendice.

Georg von Welling, a Bavarian alchemical and theosophical
writer, is born. Von Welling is known for his 1719 work Opus
Mago-Cabalisticum et Theosophicum.

1666 CE

Helvetius’ account of the transmutation in the Hague.
Crassellame Lux obnubilata

1668 CE

Rober Boyle, chemist

1667 CE

Johan de Monte Snijder performed a transmuation in 1667 for
Guillaume in Aken, the Netherlands

1667 CE

Eirenaeus Philalethes An open entrance to the closed palace
of the King

1675 CE

Olaus Borrichius

1677 CE

Mutus Liber

1690 CE

Publication of the English translation of the Chemical
Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

1691 CE

Birth of Saint Germain

1710 CE

Samuel Richter begins to form the Order of the Golden and
Rosy Cross

Lascaris, A greek Adept / monk that live in the Netherlands
for a while, and thereafter went to Berlin, where he gave J.F.
Böttger the stone

1717 CE

Grand Lodge of English Freemasonry founded

1719 CE

Georg von Welling’s "Opus Mago-Cabalisticum et
Theosophicum" is published. This is an important and
influential esoteric work, which influences numerous
subsequent authors, including Goethe, who perused it during
his alchemical studies.

1723 CE

The Golden Chain of Homer, written or edited by Anton
Josef Kirchweger, is first issued at Frankfurt and Leipzig in
four German editions in 1723, 1728, 1738 and 1757. A Latin
version is issued at Frankfurt in 1762, and further German
editions follow. This work has an enormous influence on
Rosicrucan alchemy and on the Golden and Rosy Cross order. In
the late eighteenth century

1735 CE

Abraham Eleazar Uraltes chymisches Werck

1737 CE

Jean Christophe Kunst, a German Professor

1739 CE

Matthieu Dammy, one of the last famous Parisian Alchymists,
published ihis works in Amsterdam

1750 CE

Dr. Sigismond Bacstrom, physician who was also an alchemist
and a Rosicrucian, is born. Believed to be of Scandinavian
origin, he spent some time as a ship’s surgeon.

1776 CE

Adam Weishaupt forms the Order of Illuminati of Bavaria

1780 CE

The order of the Asiatic Brethren (Fratres Lucis) is
founded by Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen as a
schismatic order from the Golden and Rosy Cross. The Asiatic
Brethren admits Jews and the Order’s theosophic doctrines and
ceremonial regulations are based upon the Qabalah

1785 CE

Geheime Figuren The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians

1791 CE

Dr Sigismund Bacstrom is initiated into a Rosicrucian
society by the Comte de Chazal on the Island of Mauritius. The
Count, then a venerable old man of some 96 years, seems to
have seen in Bacstrom his greatness as an hermetic student and
offered to take him on as a pupil and teach him the great
work. During this period, Bacstrom was allowed to perform a
transmutation under Chazal’s guidance and using his
substances. The Comte de Chazal was connected with the French
stream of Rosicrucianism probably linking back to the Comte de
St Germain.

1858 CE

Pascal B.Randolph founds Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor

1884 CE

Martinist Order Founded. (French school of mysticism)

1888 CE

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is formed by Mathers,
Westcott, Woodman